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Council OKs new convenience store

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

By MIKE WIGGINS.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

A proposal to open a 24-hour convenience store and gas station in northeast Grand Junction moved ahead Monday night over the written objections of neighbors who fear the development could introduce a host of negative impacts to the area.

The City Council voted 6-1 to approve a growth plan amendment that will change the future land-use designation of 1.3 acres of land at 2948 F Road and 603 29½ Road from residential medium to commercial.

The change allows Maverik Country Stores Inc. to proceed with a development application to construct the convenience store and gas station at the northwest corner of 29½ and F roads.

No opponents of the project spoke during Monday’s meeting. But more than 30 residents signed a petition asking the council to deny the growth plan change, claiming the convenience store and gas station would generate traffic, noise and light. They also insisted the development isn’t needed, noting there are three other convenience stores and gas stations within a half-mile of the site.

Councilman Gregg Palmer, who cast the only vote in opposition to the amendment, said he didn’t want to see a commercial development encroach upon an established residential neighborhood. He claimed the area hasn’t changed much in recent years.

“I’m not sold,” Palmer said.

Other council members, however, said increased traffic on Patterson makes maintaining residential uses on the property less feasible and boosts the likelihood that more commercial projects will sprout along the corridor.

One of the current owners of the property, Tina Million, told council members “it’s way too loud to live there anymore.” She said her grandparents bought the property when Patterson was a two-lane road. Now, she said she doesn’t allow her children to play outside because of the traffic zooming by.

Don Lilyquist, a representative for Utah-based Maverik, said the company’s stores aren’t truck stops but rather neighborhood service centers.

“Our purpose is to … capitalize on traffic going down the road already,” he said.